Research Description
The Social Apps Lab undertakes interdisciplinary collaboration to develop social and software platforms that encourage active citizenship and direct democracy. Directed by Professor James Holston, it engages social science, computer science, engineering, public health, art, and aspects of gameplay in research and design that aim to reformulate the terms of democratic assembly, citizen participation, civic action, and urban knowledge.Its projects include DengueChat and AppCivist, the former used in Managua and Asunción for community-based arbovirus vector control and the latter in Vallejo, CA, for the city’s participatory budgeting and in São Paulo for direct democratic assembly. The Social Apps Lab won the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Public Service.